Session
WE.2.D || Business Life Cycle Networks
Authors
Bajaj, Sanjeevan; Prox, Martina; Sonnemann, Guido; Strothmann, Philip; Fava, James
Abstract
Over the past two decades, the Life Cycle Community has made significant progress in achieving methodological improvements and building capacity to conduct life cycle assessment studies and generating national data sets. Life Cycle Management (LCM) has also been growing to focus on policy and use of life cycle information. However, while also gaining traction, LCM is still not applied on a large enough scale to affect significant change. One challenge that needs to be overcome is the lack of visibility and reach of the Life Cycle Community. To achieve this objective, two major issues for mainstreaming LCM need to be addressed that are intrinsically linked: collaboration and communication. In order to significantly increase the take up of Life Cycle based approaches in academia, business and government, the Life Cycle Community needs to further enhance global collaboration among itself, as well as with others and communicate to a wider set of stakeholders. To facilitate this global coordination and communication effort, the Forum for Sustainability through Life Cycle Innovation e.V. has been established in 2015. As a membership-driven organization it provides a home for the life cycle community, acts as a central information and networking hub and has put a spotlight on relevant issues for the community to address, such as marine litter within LCA. The FSLCI’s overall objective is to broaden the understanding and application of life cycle innovation to enhance sustainability on a global scale. The presentation will provide an overview of the work that the FSLCI has carried out since its launch in 2015 and outline its programmatic approach for the next years to further global coordination, collaboration and communication to advance life cycle innovation.